Orion Draper is not your typical Dweller. She is a non-conformist with an insatiable appetite for adventure. And trouble. So it is no surprise when she finds herself eavesdropping on a Constable meeting. One word that makes no sense, “Earth”, sends Orion on a quest for answers.

What is this “Earth”? And why has it never been mentioned before? Her search is soon over, but not without a heavy price to pay. Forced to leave behind the only home she has ever known, Orion fights for the chance to return. Every corner holds a new danger, and every shadow hides a secret. No one can be trusted, and no town is permanent.

Will Orion ever return to Dandux? Or is she forever condemned to repeat this hell she now knows?

I received this book for free for review consideration. All my reviews are based on my honest opinion, regardless of the book source.

Starting with the things I loved: I loved the cover and the summary. The rebel girl with the blue hair made me think the story would be about an outsider with attitude. The summary sounded like a mysterious, dystopian-like survival story. All of which led me to have high hopes for the story.

Unfortunately, the story did not live up to my expectations. In fact, it was a bit of a mess. The story started out interesting, albeit a bit confusing. The set-up of the wold is not really explained, but it seems that most emotions are not allowed, particularly anger. Orion predictably gets in trouble, and must satisfy her curiosity about “Earth”, an unknown location that she overhears mentioned.

The story fell apart once Orion found her way to Earth. She is only there for a brief scene before time jumps and it’s 3 years later. This time jump is the thing that confuses me. How did the girls adjust? They go from being completely new to the world to having apartments, and jobs and school careers. All in 3 short years? I want to know happened during the missing time.

Overall, there was just too much missing from the story for me to enjoy it. Not only was there a lot missing to explain how the girls acclimatized to Earth, but there seemed to be a lot of gunfire with no police presence. Every few hours it seemed that someone was shooting someone else, usually to death, and yet there was no legal implications? It just didn’t seem reasonable.